I'm shocked that they would expect cheerleaders to look a certain way! This is patriarchy!

The infographic "Cheer and Dance Tryout Look" was posted by the University of Washington cheerleading team for their upcoming tryouts. The team received backlash from students and other critics who said that the poster was sexist as it told women to look a certain way to qualify.

Some students complained that the cheerleader checklist poster undermined the seriousness of cheerleading as a real sport, Daily Mail notes. Some said that as students of color, they felt excluded as they do not embody the descriptions of the checklist that specifically asked for "bronzed or tanned" looks.

The Associated Students of the University of Washington posted on their Facebook page to say that the old cheerleader checklist goes against the prevention of objectification of women that many students and women worked so hard for. They promised to maintain an inclusive environment for all and hopes for the university administration to do the same. People Magazine reports that Washington State University and Louisiana State University had similar cheerleader checklist posters. After the controversy, Louisiana State had removed theirs.

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.
William Shakespeare

White privilege is dangerous and destructive, but also systemic and normalized. And I'm not singling out my colleague Wendy Beth Hyman's article here by attaching it. There were several articles published in the Oberlin Review this past week that I could have attached here. But this one by Wendy Hyman will do. It's really sad and embarrassing when students are doing a better job than faculty at modeling how to engage in rhetorical debate and create space for critical inquiry.

When I first was made aware of Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition Joy Karega’s postings on social media by a colleague, I was disgusted by her claims that Israel and “Zionist Jews” were somehow behind ISIS, Charlie Hebdo, the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 and even 9/11. Even more distressing were posts that promulgated a claim of a secret Jewish conspiracy behind the media, the economy and the world’s governments. I have come across such materials before in archival sources documenting the anti-Semitic propaganda that helped launch the Holocaust and on contemporary neo-Nazi websites. My colleague disseminated other conspiracies, too, like the existence of government-controlled “chemtrails.” Based on one video she posted, for example, Hurricane Sandy was deliberately “weaponized” in order to get Obama reelected.

As a Jew, I was certainly offended by these posts. But I was even more offended as an intellectual. One might expect to find such paranoid accusations festering somewhere on the web, but there is a reason you don’t generally hear such things being espoused by scholars with Ph.Ds. That is because such unsubstantiated, unfalsifiable, speculative hypotheses are not only overwhelmingly wrong, but are also the opposite of research.

The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.

With the average college student graduating with almost $30K in student loans, prospective college students, parents and policymakers are all trying to better understand the value of college education in the job market.

Harvard doesn't want its students to join single-sex fraternities or sororities or "final clubs" (it's a Harvard thing)

A final club is an exclusive undergraduate social club at Harvard College. The most prominent of these (and oldest, dating to 1791) are the traditionally all-male, exclusive final clubs. More recently, beginning in 1991, all-female final clubs, as well as fraternities and sororities along the lines of similar organizations found at many colleges and universities, have appeared. While a small number of these organizations have begun to admit both sexes, most do not—the reason, in general, that Harvard College refuses to recognize them.

But this isn't just going be a suggestion anymore, now there are actually going to be some consequences for students who join these groups:

In 2016, Harvard undertook to further marginalize organizations that, in the stated view of the administration, are "exclusionary and disempowering",[1] by barring members of unrecognized single-sex organizations from campus leadership positions and from receiving certain types of Harvard recommendation letters.

That last bit about not being allowed to receive "certain types of Harvard recommendation letters" means that those students would not be eligible to receive a Rhodes or Marshall scholarship. So the consequences are not merely symbolic or minor.

“In the classroom where men speak more than women, and on the weekend where women are targeted and shamed for their sexuality,” Tervo said. “On campus and in a society that is so male-dominated, female spaces are crucial sources of empowerment.”

The students are also protesting Harvard’s move against all-male final clubs and fraternities.

↑ Do the fraternities (and sororities) have saber fights to get a Schmiss?

Just joking.

When I was a student (in France), nobody cared what I did, nor even if I attended. There were just two exams/year, and possibly a third at the end of summer if you flunked.
But then, in that paleolithic period, we were considered adults – free but responsible.

Mob of the Mean: Free beanie, cattle-prod and Charley Fan Club! "Doctor X is just treating you the way he treats everyone--as subhuman crap too dumb to breathe in after you breathe out." – DonDocX: FTW. – sparks
"Doctor X wins again." – Pyrrho
"Never sorry to make a racist Fucktard cry." – His Humble MagNIfIcence
"It was the criticisms of Doc X, actually, that let me see more clearly how far the hypocrisy had gone." – clarsct
"I'd leave it up to Doctor X who has been a benevolent tyrant so far." – Grammatron
"Indeed you are a river to your people.
Shit. That's going to end up in your sig." – Pyrrho
"Try a twelve step program and accept Doctor X as your High Power." – asthmatic camel
"just like Doc X said." – gnomeWS CHAMPIONS X4!!!!NBA CHAMPIONS!!Stanley Cup!SB CHAMPIONS X6!!!!!!

They do love that word "spaces". Seems like segregation is now more popular than integration. But this time it's different because this time it's for Teh Social Justice.

But to be fair, I don't see anyone arguing that the rules should only apply to male clubs.

I may be reading too much into other news reports, but I keep seeing policy statements from the protesters : "“We want the College to return to the drawing board and create policy that acknowledges the necessity of women’s spaces on campus,” the Crimson Women’s Coalition wrote in a statement notifying journalists of the rally."

Like that. They do not demand that the policy be rescinded, or that things go back to where they were before. Instead, they argue for putting a new policy in place, as long as the new policy protect women's spaces on campus.

I have seen a few similar quotes. Again, maybe I am reading too much into it, but it looks to me like they are all in favor of making the male-only clubs admit women, but preserve the women-only spaces for themselves.

As an aside, the articles go even further than the often-debunked, but never discarded 1 in 5 or 1 in 4 women at a college campus will be sexually assaulted (i.e., even higher than the worst parts of Detroit) to say that 47% of women coming into contact with the male-only clubs will have an unwanted sexual encounter or similar language.

It seems to me that the *last* thing you would want to do is get women into those clubs. Jesus.

They do love that word "spaces". Seems like segregation is now more popular than integration. But this time it's different because this time it's for Teh Social Justice.

But to be fair, I don't see anyone arguing that the rules should only apply to male clubs.

I may be reading too much into other news reports, but I keep seeing policy statements from the protesters : "“We want the College to return to the drawing board and create policy that acknowledges the necessity of women’s spaces on campus,” the Crimson Women’s Coalition wrote in a statement notifying journalists of the rally."

Like that. They do not demand that the policy be rescinded, or that things go back to where they were before. Instead, they argue for putting a new policy in place, as long as the new policy protect women's spaces on campus.

I have seen a few similar quotes. Again, maybe I am reading too much into it, but it looks to me like they are all in favor of making the male-only clubs admit women, but preserve the women-only spaces for themselves.

As an aside, the articles go even further than the often-debunked, but never discarded 1 in 5 or 1 in 4 women at a college campus will be sexually assaulted (i.e., even higher than the worst parts of Detroit) to say that 47% of women coming into contact with the male-only clubs will have an unwanted sexual encounter or similar language.

It seems to me that the *last* thing you would want to do is get women into those clubs. Jesus.

I see that as more of a rhetorical emphasis, but the article I quoted above also contains the following sentence:

The students are also protesting Harvard’s move against all-male final clubs and fraternities.

So at least they seem to recognize that there has to be some sort of nod toward equal treatment for both sexes. They want to keep their "women's spaces" but they recognize that this means you also have to allow men to have their own "spaces".

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.
William Shakespeare

Mob of the Mean: Free beanie, cattle-prod and Charley Fan Club! "Doctor X is just treating you the way he treats everyone--as subhuman crap too dumb to breathe in after you breathe out." – DonDocX: FTW. – sparks
"Doctor X wins again." – Pyrrho
"Never sorry to make a racist Fucktard cry." – His Humble MagNIfIcence
"It was the criticisms of Doc X, actually, that let me see more clearly how far the hypocrisy had gone." – clarsct
"I'd leave it up to Doctor X who has been a benevolent tyrant so far." – Grammatron
"Indeed you are a river to your people.
Shit. That's going to end up in your sig." – Pyrrho
"Try a twelve step program and accept Doctor X as your High Power." – asthmatic camel
"just like Doc X said." – gnomeWS CHAMPIONS X4!!!!NBA CHAMPIONS!!Stanley Cup!SB CHAMPIONS X6!!!!!!